06 Dec 2016

SES: Drupal 8, front-end teardown

We’ve just designed and built a new website for the world-leading satellite operator, SES. SES connects and enables broadcast, telecom, corporate and government customers, and enriches the lives of billions of people worldwide.

We’re really proud of how it’s turned out, and as it’s one of the first batch of high-profile large Drupal 8 websites, we’ve been asked by a wide range of people about our technical approach to building a complex site using the latest version of Drupal.

You can read our case study here on the project as a whole, but here is Stuart Wilson, Head of Frontend Development at Catch to explain a little more around our front-end approach:  

“The sheer scale of the SES website demanded a scalable and comprehensive front end system. As a team we approached the transition from design to code by creating a static style guide of individual components which would then be used to power the Drupal 8 website.

Our modular CSS was written in SASS using NPM to run build scripts and wrapping it up with PostCSS’ Autoprefixer for greater resilience to browser inconsistencies. Using BEM syntax and championing an OOCSS approach allowed us to write configurable componentry which was open to extension, but closed to core modification which meant that QA testing could happen earlier on in the build.

“The sheer scale of the SES website demanded a scalable and comprehensive front end system."

STUART WILSON, HEAD OF FRONT END DEVELOPMENT AT CATCH

Thanks to Drupal 8’s use of the Twig templating engine, we could test the flexibility of our HTML templates using mock data which was then swappable for real content from the CMS.  This created a unified theming workflow with clear ownership between the front and back end of the website and helped reduce code overhead whilst instilling scalability within the UI.

Thanks to our modular approach, we were able to utilise Drupal Paragraphs to promote greater flexibility across content types in the CMS, enabling SES to realise any combination of page designs they required.”

Visit www.ses.com and stay tuned for future SES developments. We’re continuing to work with the team in Luxembourg on increased website functionality and a range of other exciting digital products.

25 May 2016

Just landed: #CatsOnAPlane

We’ve just launched our latest social campaign for Thomas Cook Airlines to promote their ‘You Deserve Better’ mantra.

Cats may be furry and cute but they’re professional, demanding and used to getting their way. 

Tom Morey, Senior Group Marketing Manager at Thomas Cook Airlines, said: “No-one can assess comfort like a cat. They’re the hardest customers to please, which is why we wanted to test our new interiors with the best. And the results left the cautious kitties feline great.”

Our #CatsOnAPlane campaign consists of a series of films featuring 10 distinctive cats showcasing the comfort and service on offer from the airline (and its German sister airline, Condor).

The first in a series of ads shows a contemptible cat mellow its views on air travel. The campaign rolls out in the UK and Germany to inform viewers that they “deserve better” when going on holiday.

Cats are the undisputed champions of the internet. They’re fussy, demanding and know exactly what they want.

Jonathan Smith, Catch's Managing Director, added: "Cats are the undisputed champions of the internet. They’re fussy, demanding and know exactly what they want. What better way to put the airline’s service to the test. We love working with the team at Thomas Cook Airlines, they're fearless and you can't ask for more than that in a client."

Filmed on 2 planes, with 10 cats and over a gruelling 24 hours - This campaign and production was one of our most ambitious to date. We were literally herding cats.

Join the fun on social at #CatsOnAPlane www.facebook.com/ThomascookairlinesUK

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0207 494 3554
or
newbiz@catchdigital.com